Wavelength turns 15 and celebrates its “Past, Present and Future” with a Pop-Up Gallery of show posters and photography at Huntclub Studios on College, hosting a panel discussion on Toronto’s “Music City” moment, continuing the theme at that February’s Winter Festival. Summertime levels up when our Island festival is relaunched as Camp Wavelength — three days of music and camping in an artsy lakeside wonderland. Hip-hop emcee Haviah Mighty and Afro-pop star Pierre Kwenders play the fest before going on to win the Polaris Music Prize. But 2017 sees flooding on Toronto Island force the festival into the city, and Wavelength’s summer festival finds new homes at Fork York and Stackt Market. Our winter festival, meanwhile, gets cozier at the Garrison and year-round Wavelength presents more conceptual concerts, bike tours, library talks, and shows in woodworking studios.
The Festival Era (2015-2019)
The Festival Era (2015-2019)
Wavelength turns 15 and celebrates its “Past, Present and Future” with a Pop-Up Gallery of show posters and photography at Huntclub Studios on College, hosting a panel discussion on Toronto’s “Music City” moment, continuing the theme at that February’s Winter Festival. Summertime levels up when our Island festival is relaunched as Camp Wavelength — three days of music and camping in an artsy lakeside wonderland. Hip-hop emcee Haviah Mighty and Afro-pop star Pierre Kwenders play the fest before going on to win the Polaris Music Prize. But 2017 sees flooding on Toronto Island force the festival into the city, and Wavelength’s summer festival finds new homes at Fork York and Stackt Market. Our winter festival, meanwhile, gets cozier at the Garrison and year-round Wavelength presents more conceptual concerts, bike tours, library talks, and shows in woodworking studios.
The 19th Wavelength Winter Festival brings a sense of coziness that, in hindsight, is much-needed, with massive majesty palm plants turning the Garrison into a therapeutic greenhouse. We rebrand Camp Wavelength as the Wavelength Summer Music & Arts Festival and host it at Stackt Market. With live music inside and arts activities outside, it’s a nice city-side throwback to the early days of ALL CAPS! on the Island. Other memorable shows include two nights at woodworking studio Brothers Dressler on Sterling Road (one of our favourite alternative venues of all time), and “the new sound of Toronto hip-hop” with Swagger Rite, LolaBunz and 730Rarri.
When Wavelength reaches voting age, we enter adulthood with another rebrand of our February anniversary festivities: it’s hereby known as the Wavelength Winter Festival, to distinguish it from its summer sibling. With Toronto Island no longer viable as a festival site post-flooding, Camp Wavelength finds a new home at Fort York’s Garrison Common, reinventing the fest as a two-day urban green space adventure themed, of course, “Fun Finds a Way.” Other memorable moments include experimental electronic artist Obuxum and R&B singer Kiyoya Amoah at the Toronto Public Library in Rexdale, and German “kosmische musik” pioneers Faust alongside Toronto analog-synth wizard Castle If.
The community tries to process the recent election of a certain individual with a panel discussion entitled “Music as Disruption” tackling the topic of art as activism. Sadly, high water levels on Lake Ontario cause historic flooding of Toronto Island, and the team makes the difficult but necessary choice to move Camp Wavelength onto the mainland, reimagined as a “Day Camp in the City,” with all the scheduled musical acts and most of the arts programming is maintained. Other memorable events include a Doors Open “bike tour” of historical buildings with performances at every stop, and Camp Cruise, a harbour boat cruise with live music.
Wavelength’s Sweet 16 kicks off with a New Year’s Eve party in Mirvish Village, and Wavelength Music Festival 16 tightens up the format by hosting three nights of shows at one home base, the Garrison. Come August, it’s back to the Island for the second edition of Camp Wavelength. The music is great, the art is dazzling, and the stories are legendary. Other memorable moments include a team-up with Manifesto to bring together hip-hop, indie, R&B and electronica with pHoenix Pagliacci, Language Arts, Obuxum and more, and “Don’t Speak,” a conceptual concert of ambient music, where talking is forbidden and guests must communicate through handwritten notes.
Wavelength Music Festival 15 is themed “Past, Present, and Future,” which defines the organization’s whole year: it starts with a three-week-long Wavelength Pop-Up Gallery with a historical poster and photo show, window art, community concerts, workshops, and talks; each of the annual fest’s three nights embodies one of the categories; and the first Camp Wavelength fest on the Island has three days of shows, two nights of camping, and one giant artsy wonderland. Notable performances include Canadian punk pioneer (and later Order of Canada recipient) Art Bergmann at the “Past” night of the fest, and a 50th-anniversary celebration for noise legends the Nihilist Spasm Band.